Max's Taking Back Sunday painting goes big!

Back in May I did a painting and a video for the band Taking Back Sunday. It was of a roaring lion. When they purchased it, I had no idea they were going to end up turning it into a giant banner for the backdrop of their stage show! They also made it a graphic for their kick drum.

This ended up being a pleasant surprise, and of course has me itching to do more work for bands...

My latest video. This was a fun day. A bunch of bands from Tee Pee Records played at The Nomad Gallery in Los Angeles. I was on stage painting up a storm the whole time.

Guerilla art at Los Angeles Art Show and Art L.A.

When I heard about LA Art Show and Art LA coming to town, I thought it would be fun to go set up right out front and paint. So I did! First I went to Art LA at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. When I got there, I asked the security (traffic control) guys if they minded if I set up and painted the building. They were surprisingly receptive to the idea. I got set up right across the street from the main entrance to the event.


After I set up, did a quick lay of the land and finished a landscape of the scenery, I pulled out the rest of my work and moved on to painting some more fun subject matter. I was worried about the weather, and I was prepared to tough it out, thinking I would get some serious street cred if I stayed and painted in the rain, but in the end the day was sunny and beautiful.


A little later in the day my friend Quam Odunsi came by and snapped some pics. It's always good to see a familiar face when I'm out in the field.

I have to admit that the experience was not as exciting as I had anticipated. I was expecting to either have a run in with the authorities, or at least get some attention from the many people going in and out of the venue. In the end it was just a pleasant day painting outside. Most of the people there were actually ignoring me! "Don't make eye contact with the street artist, dear." I felt like a homeless person. Perhaps acknowledging art out on the sidewalk would have changed the status of the work inside. Maybe they did not want the idea of paying to see art to be challenged by my presence. It really makes you think about how context can play such an important role when it comes to showing art.

Speaking of context, the next day I set up in a completely different setting. I went downtown to see the LA Art show at the convention center. It turned out that a Lakers game was just about to start when I got there, so traffic was a nightmare. I had to pay $20 to park two blocks away. After spending an additional $15 to get in, I perused the many isles of expensive contemporary art. I must admit that I had a great time and saw some great work. Along the way I ran into Bert Green from Bert Green Fine Art. He took a moment to talk to me about the show. I said that after the cost of parking and the entrance fee, LA Art Show did not seem like it was really accessible to the general public. He brought up a good point in stating that this event was not for the general public, but for art buyers, most of whom do not find $40 cost of attending a major obstacle. He then went on to remind me that the galleries themselves are usually free and open to the public. I agreed, especially in this economy, it's hard enough selling work without your attention being spread thin by non-buyers. I hope you made some sales, Bert.

After the sensory overload the show, I went out front to find a place to set up. It turned out that the front of the convention center is also right next to the Staples Center. I got set up and started painting right as the game got out.


A lot more people stopped to check me out than the day before. Interesting. I suppose a painter set up outside a basketball game is a bit unusual. Perhaps worth taking a look at. But a painter set up outside a bourgeois art fair does not even deserve a glance over the shoulder? It goes to show, context is everything.

Evderyday in Loliland is a blast!

Everyday strikes again with another wicked good time. I had the pleasure of being invited to paint at DJ Loli's release party at the Beauty Bar in Hollywood. It was my first time painting there. They set me up in the window so I could be seen from the street. Good times were had by all. Good music, good vibes, and for some reason there was a plethora of beautiful Australian women. How could it go wrong?

Ed Gold checkin the scene from the outside.

I'm still working on my "cool artist guy" pose. I think it still needs work, but I'm getting there.

Beautiful DJ Loli making it happen.

Ricardo Aguilar getting serious with the art revolution!

Ladies...

Lets dance!

Come out next time and party with us!

LA City Beat reviews Max Neutra at Goods Gallery

Earlier this month I got a call from Ron Garmon at LA City Beat. He wanted to write an article on me, so I invited to view my latest show, a double shot of art with Michael Pukac at the Goods Gallery in Long Beach. He came, he saw, he believed. Here's some pics from the show and the article he wrote. To see the original article, click HERE. Thanks Ron!

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A FRONTMAN

Don’t worry, Max Neutra’s with the band

By Ron Garmon

Despite millions pumped into develop-ment and a string of half-empty condos dotting the grimy streets near the water, Long Beach Boulevard on this first Saturday night of 2009 is decidedly tomblike. Acres of Books, for decades a hive of early evening activity, shut its doors for good in October, forced out of business by a city now content to let the 1930s-deco barn stand empty until it’s demolished. Much of the rest is generic mallspace sporting the same tight-guarded, user-unfriendly chain-stores you find everywhere else, only here plopped into an already depressed landscape.

As if to mock official measures to make downtown Long Beach safe from literacy (there are talks underway about closing the city’s main library), the local art-proletariat looks to have discovered the place in a big way. Phantom Galleries, a movement dedicated to turning the county’s ever-increasing number of empty shop windows into temporary museums, has discovered the friendly old brick retail spaces, and light glows from studios scattered along the numbered side streets. Next to the shuttered bookshop is Goods Gallery: three metal shipping containers butting together to form a U-shape, its blank interior dotted with canvases. Within the crotch of the U, an R&B band loads out, and slender, sharp-featured Max Neutra paces inside the adjoining containers, talking of personal demons through a cheerful giggle.

“There’s definitely a lot of angst in this stuff,” says Max, gesturing at blank utilitarian walls festooned with his spiky caricatures – harsh and hilarious studies of men with TV screens for heads, glossolalic robots, human faces contorted in all manner of shock and horror, and an upright fish dressed in a business suit and breathing bubbles of worry. That one, he says, is called Drowning in Your Responsibilities.

“I decided to become an artist by epiphany, the only one I’ve ever had,” he continues. “I was sitting in a coffee shop after a gig installing a stereo at some shop in NoHo and I was looking around at everybody, feeling bitter against everyone there – ‘Look at these people! What are they contributing?’ Then I thought, ‘What am I contributing?’ Then, being an artist came to me, as the biggest contribution I feel like I can make in my surroundings.”

That was 2006. But long before that, before Max heard his own voice from this burning bush, he was a kid living outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, a kid whose great-grandfather is the celebrated modernist architect Richard Neutra (whose one-story Neutra Office Building on Glendale Boulevard is in the National Registry of Historic Places). Out there in the desert, he fell under the wanton influence of R. Crumb via dad’s collection of Zap Comix. He moved to L.A. as a young adult, got into sound recording and design, working as an A/V tech at Warner Bros. while composing electronic music. Since the epiphanic moment in a coffee shop in 2006, Max has become a regular on the local art scene, with showings/performances at the Hammer, the Found Gallery, the Mountain Bar and the Paul Gleason Theatre. His next gig is part of a group exhibit in the Loft at Liz’s on La Brea Avenue, February 9-15.

He cites Ralph Steadman and Jackson Pollock as influences, but the wiggy aesthetic animating his portraits of proud Indian chiefs, cracked robots and walleyed, multi-mouthed lumpen-bourgeoisie derives from a tension between animal dignity and human folly.

The result looks like one half Lucian Freud and 50 percent Mad magazine circa 1973, a preposterous, unsettling muster of faces and attitudes. As sold-out and world-battered as Neutra’s humans often are – and despite his frantic lines and crabbed, neurotic framing – his images of animals retain dignity and poise for all. “When it comes to animals,” admits Max, “I focus more on the beauty than on the grotesque. Man grosses me out more than a giraffe does. They’re innocent. Man has a choice, and the thing I struggle the most with is humanity.”

Tonight, however, Max is again taking his struggles public for another evening of “live painting” – nothing more than laying on color while live music hammers in the background and interested laity gather to dance and gape. “The first time I did this was at the Cocaine [a venerable Little Tokyo hole], with a band called Tweak Bird back in 2007,” Max remembers.

One half of a double show, sharing the space with Michael Pukac’s dainty, whimsical female nudes, Neutra wades into his performance like any giddy frontman, laying a preliminary splatter of black as members of the Mighty Mojo Prophets crank out sturdy 1950s blues riffs. Together, they pull in faces off the street, most of them stretching in kindly grins as Max begins heaping eyeballs, flannel mouths and bristly hairs on yet another luckless head. The artist had made a handsome boast earlier that he could wrap up one painting per song, but he takes his time over this particular monstrosity, limning every wart and blemish with care.

Walking the event’s perimeter is gallery manager Evan Kelly, optimistic despite every sign of strapped economic circumstance around us. “We have showings every Saturday and live painting definitely draws a crowd. They get a chance to see how art is made, and these containers are kind of a natural gallery space. In an age of sustainability and mobility, they’re perfect.” Open since October, the gallery is free, and the three containers that comprise it are donated by the Port of Long Beach. For any who take this no-budget aesthetic as a sign of bad times, Kelly has a friendly rebuke. The art biz “isn’t doing as badly as people imagine” in this downturn. “It isn’t like we’re selling product, as in ‘Hey, buy my crap!’ It’s a free show, but we’re selling art, something people are going to be interested in no matter what happens.”
The band careens into T-Bone Walker’s “Call It Stormy Monday” as Max busies himself with placement of a third shrieking maw on a skull already overburdened with deformities. The crowd within the gallery grows, as amplified echoes bounce off distant walls, a reminder in the middle of a howling commercial wilderness that life is stubbornly going on somewhere. The musicians, cynical-looking old pros, are plainly delighted to let their elderly music be used as part of a new neighborhood aesthetic of art for loud’s sake.

Published: 01/08/2009

Party Time with Everyday

I had a great time painting at an event in Hollywood thrown by Everyday. They are a super fun bunch of people that know how to have a good time and are all about the positive vibes. Here's a video they cut of the event...

Live painting at Create Fixate

Check this out! Create Fixate is one of the coolest art shows in Los Angeles. I have been attending them for years and now I have been invited to participate. I will be hanging many pieces as well as doing some live painting. These shows are always great, so be sure not to miss this one!

CREATE:FIXATE presents
Lucky 7
Celebrating 7 Years of Art & Music
Saturday, December 6, 2008






OPTICAL LOUNGE
ART : PHOTOGRAPHY : SCULPTURE : MULTIMEDIA : INSTALLATION : LIVE PAINTING

Andre Freimann : Annabel Ruffell : Anne Carmack : CHO : Kristen Eppley : DAKshots : Erin Allen
Farzad Kohan : Garret Suhrie : Gus Harper : Hagop Belian : Jeff Bughouse : Jennifer Perlmutter
Jessica Seaton : JK Wasson : Jorge Oswaldo : Josh Reiss : Jyll Ethier-Mullen : Leyla Akdogan
Linka Odom : Linley Eathorne : Mark Acetelli : Max Neutra : Michael Gullberg : Michael Pukac
Michael Severin : Neil Kohanski : Rebecca Johnson : Richard Wahlstrom : Tony Hong

LIVE PAINTING
Carlos Vera : Max Neutra : Michael Pukac

INSTALLATION
Ted Werth : Derek Michael : Eric Hanson

VIDEO PROJECTIONS
VJ Fader


FEATURED STUDENT ARTWORK
Youth Speak Collective


FASHION & JEWELRY
Brooke Benson Designs : De La Luna Designs : Dug Shop : Search+ResQ
Simone Schulz Designs : Soy’-ka Designs : Sunny Rising Leather : YevArts Handmade Jewelry



AUDIO LAB
HOUSE : TECHNO : DOWNTEMPO : BREAKS : DUB : EXPERIMENTAL: WORLD RHYTHMS : LIVE MUSIC

LAB .01
Chad Rock L.A.B.A. : Samuel Markus LIVE : Mexican Dubweiser GalleryTen
Nalepa Bass Science : S.O.U.L.- O. West Coast Unknown Productions

LAB .02
Kenneth Graham Ovum/Plastic City : Viktor Carrillo Droidbehavior/Sage
AquaVee Missdreamedia : Aime Room 208/Live : Le Femme Digitale


LIVE TANGO
Mitra Martin & Stefan Fabry Tango Mar



Read more about participating artists, musicians, and organizations:
http://www.createfixate.org/2008/11/lucky-7-press-release/


CURATED & PRODUCED BY Michelle Berc MUSIC COORDINATOR Andrea Giardina

A VERY SPECIAL THANX TO C:F Board Members, Staff, & Volunteers for their contributions.


SATURDAY, December 6, 2008 : 7pm – 2am
GALLERY PREVIEW 4-7pm
*Kids Creativity Zone from 4-7 pm*

Premiere Events Center : 613 Imperial St., Los Angeles, CA
$15 Admission before 10pm / $20 after : Gallery Preview $5 suggested donation


‘LIBERATE YOUR PERCEPTON’ AT http://www.createfixate.com
FOR PRESS INQUIRIES PLEASE EMAIL lynn@greengalactic.com


JOIN CREATE:FIXATE’S PATRON PROGRAM AND RECIEVE SPECIAL
DISCOUNTS AND PERKS AT ALL OUR EVENTS!
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO:
http://www.createfixate.org/support/patron-program/



“Liberate Your Perception”

http://www.createfixate.com

Live painting at Sunset Junction 2008 with Metromix

Ahhh Sunset Junction. My first time attending. It's a street fair with booze and music in hollywood/silverlake, and it's HOT, so you can imagine the atmosphere. Lots of girls showing their new hip dresses, lots of men showing their hairy chests. Food and art everywhere. Metromix hired me to come paint at their booth. Here are some nuggets from the Felini-esque experience.

Here's a view of the crowd from out booth.


I LOVE the shot with the snake guy. The story with that shot is I was sitting there painting when a guy came up and was talking to Aric, the other guy in the booth with me. I had my back to them, but I could hear them talking. After the guy had been there for longer than usual (it was in the morning when things were slower) I figured I should turn around and say hi. When I turned around I saw his snake and I said "Heyyy! This whole time you had a snake!?" He was a super cool guy. Laid back. He said "Yeah man." I wish I remembered the snake's name, but it was something like Bozo or something. Anyway, I asked if I could take his picture and without hesitation he said "Sure man.", like he's used to it. I turned around and got my camera and when I turned back around I saw that guy in the background walking towards us. I was thinking "Wait for it....wait for it" until he came into the frame and click, I got it. It was only later on when I looked at the picture again that I realized that the snake guy has a tattoo on his arm that says "Born to Rock". Gotta love it.


This is the BBQ guy that was stationed directly across from us. It was early on the first day that he broke out the megaphone and started yelling "BARRRR BEEEEE QUEEEEEE! Get your BBQ! Chicken wings! AIN'T NOTHIN BUT A CHICKEN WAAAAAAAANG!". Just as Aric and I were realising that we were going to have to listen to this guy the whole two days we were there, he approaches our booth, megaphone in hand. He spun the prize wheel and won a flask, announced it to the world , and then went back to hawking his body parts. He was a nice enough guy and ended up giving Aric some free ribs at the end of the event. The Pork Chop piece below was painted in response to his effect on me.



I was given this hat at a Warner Chappel company picnic just days before. It ended up really coming in handy.Possible Tshirt in the future?....

Live Painting at Decadence for the OC Weekly

Earlier this month I was contacted by the OC Weekly and asked if I would paint for them at their annual food tasting event called Decadence that coincides with their annual restaurant Issue. The event was held at the Westin Hotel in Costa Mesa and 3000 people attended. Needless to say, I had a great time tasting good food and wine and hanging out with beautiful people.

I knew it was going to be an interesting night when just as I was about to get started, a good looking woman walked up to me, pulled open her blouse to reveal most of her left breast, and said "Does this inspire you?". I was speechless. She covered up and walked by. At that point I met eyes with the event photographer who was standing behind me and had witnessed the whole thing. He asked "Does that happen often?", and without missing a beat, I replied "All the time."

The thing is, it does happen often. I paint at art shows, and at some of these art shows there are naked women getting painted. These painted naked women sometimes come up to me and chat, with nothing between their nipples and my beer but a still drying coat of paint, about 12 inches of space, and my wedding ring shining like a bright beacon of trust. Sure, I chat with them. I don't want to be rude. But I don't give them any more attention than I give the usual patron.

The rest of the night was filled with many conversations with interesting people. I sold a ton of paintings and made a couple contacts for business propositions you may be hearing about in future issues of The Drop.

Jeni Carle referred me for the gig. She's a cool artist and you should check her out HERE


Here's some pics of the event. They really don't do it justice, but they will have to do.


Go Go dancers waiting for the Go Go. This was only phase one of their outfits. Phase two was not so modest.
It's hard to see, but that's my setup at the end of the pool. The whole night I was concerned I was going to take one step too many backwards and fall in. There was a second artist there named Ingrid Marrero and we were joking about guessing what time of night someone was going to fall in the pool. We guessed 10:30, and when 10:30 rolled around, Ingrid came over with a big smile on her face and pointed out that someone had just fallen in. Ingrid is a cool artist and it's a shame I did not get get any pictures of her. She does some great work with color and you should check her out here: http://www.zhibit.org/ingridmarrero



This is a piece I did on request. I often get asked to paint various animals, it's one of the things I do and I like doing it, but I was pleasantly surprised when Ryan Cox asked me to paint him Zombies! Ryan Cox is the guy that booked me for the event. He's a super nice guy and was a pleasure to work with.

Live Painting at the X Games 2008 for Metromix

Metromix gave me a call and asked if I could come paint at their booth for the X Games. I had a great time! It was my first time at the XGames and I have to say that I am thoroughly impressed with the athletes there. The motocross guys were just plain nuts, and watching the BMX guys on the vert ramp was super fun. It was not all play of course, I was there to work. I painted five paintings a day for Metromix to raffle off as prizes. We had quite a crowd going. I painted everything from Evel Knievel to Radioheads. Enjoy the pics!



Check out the huge line people were waiting in for a chance to win some art...



This is a custom painted skate board I was able to work on one afternoon. It's going to be in a show at Monkeyhouse Toys in Silverlake. The show is called All a Board and the opening is Saturday, August 23rd.

Max Neutra Unleashed and Wisdom show reviews

Ahhhhh yes, I can finally catch my breath. Unleashed at the Bailey Gallery drew a nice crowd during the LA downtown Artwalk. A lot of people came out to support, and I met a bunch of new friends. We sold 9 pieces during opening night! Many thanks Rob and Janene from Pussy and Pooch for a wonderful show! I will be there again on July 10th for the downtown artwalk doing some live painting just outside the store.

Here's the artist statement for the show:

This show is a celebration of the many forms of life that continue to live and evolve on this planet. With the growing reality of global warming, we are being reminded that we do not live in a stagnate environment. The world is constantly changing. It used to be a lot different from the way it is now, and it will continue to evolve. With the realization that things will change, perhaps we will learn to better appreciate what we have.

I hope these paintings serve as a reminder of the beauty and perfection of nature and compel you to take action for yourselves and the planet at large. Look up from your screens to lock eyes with an organic living creature and reflect its boundless beauty by being an organic living creature yourself. Unleash yourself. You are alive!


This is right before the giraffe ate my tie.
(Photo by: Dave Bullock / eecue http://davebullock.com)


Enjoying some wine with good company.


Some lovely ladies ...

Frida the cat liked the turtle.

Later last month Wisdom opened at Solid Gallery One. It was during a heat wave, but people still managed to make it out. We managed to survive the heat and enjoy the artwork. Ended up selling 7 pieces that night! Thank you to Jarrett and Wendy from Solid for a great event, and good luck with their new location on Fairfax!

Here's the artist statement for the show:

I was born on Venice Beach, but I grew up in Santa Fe, NM. During a visit last year, I found myself inspired by a lot of the Native American artwork that I used to take for granted. Once I started researching the subject, my interest quickly picked up momentum and I decided to work on a series. Looking up old photographs of Native Americans for reference material, it did not take long for me to fall in love with the potency of the images. The rich culture and tradition. The simple beauty of feathers and bone. The suffering and loss. The wisdom written into the faces of these great chiefs. The photographs seem to rattle with pride. All of this captured within a simple portrait.

How is it possible that during my time growing up in Santa Fe, I seemed to miss the true underlying value of all that work? What has changed that is allowing me to finally recognize that value? Perhaps it is my age that has finally opened up my ability to appreciate these things. I was much younger when I lived in Santa Fe. I had not spent much time fending for myself. Now, I have spent the last ten years getting an education, moving to new cities, chasing new dreams, reaching new heights, suffering new pains, and ultimately finding my own way in the wilderness of the world. I have been learning the language of defeat, triumph, and self preservation, and now I am beginning to be able to read the vast scriptures written in the faces of these great people.


For this show I wanted to capture that language and portray the weight it seems to bare while also keeping the images out in front, unwilling to back down, the same way the original subjects sat with pride, eyes set on the lens. Heavy with history. Wisdom unflinching.


Me and my goofy smile.

Good peeps checking out the Native Americans.


"It does not require many words to speak the truth." - Chief Joseph

Live Art Warehouse Party

Here's some more live painting action for ya. Actually, there will be a ton of talent at this show. Not to be missed!

Max Neutra solo show Wisdom

This show has been in the works for many months and will feature ink paintings of Native Americans on wood. Although the paintings seem relatively simple, their creation involved weeks of experimentation and a process that involves many steps to achieve. The results have yielded some of the "finest" artwork I have produced thus far, and I am very excited to finally present them to the public. I know that some of you have been waiting patiently for months for these to be released. Out of state buyers, please contact me directly if you are interested in seeing some preview images.

The show will be held at Solid Gallery One in Silver Lake, home of Neutra Place. Solid Gallery is a very warm and inviting space thanks to the hospitality of the owners, Jarret and Wendy. Come out, enjoy a few drinks, fine company, fine art, and get down with the Wisdom.